EDF board approves Hinkley nuclear plant project
Ford reports lower quarterly profit
FTSE 100 slips 0.3% to 6,732 points
Oracle agrees to buy NetSuite in $9.3bn deal
Centrica profits fall as customers depart
Lloyds Banking Group speeds up job cuts and branch closures
Thomas Cook and Countrywide warn on profits
BT and Sky report higher profits
Image source, Getty ImagesThe first Boeing 747 was rolled-out on 30 September 1968.
Pan Am was the first airline to operate the Jumbo Jet, with its first flight from New York to London.
Since then the company has delivered, external 1,522 of the 747 aircraft in its various forms.
Boeing says there has been, external "lower-than-expected" demand for large commercial aircraft. The company is cutting its production rate from 1 a month, to half a 747 per month.
Quote MessageIf we are unable to obtain sufficient orders and/or market, production and other risks cannot be mitigated, we could record additional losses that may be material, and it is reasonably possible that we could decide to end production of the 747.
Boeing regulatory filing
The BBC's North America Business Correspondent, Michelle Fleury tweets:
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Ford is denying a report in the Financial Times, external that it is considering closing plants in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
However the company has told the BBC it is looking at everything, as it expects a $1bn hit to its performance due to the falling value of sterling and expected weakness in the UK car market.
Ford has two plants in the UK - at Bridgend and Dagenham.
Image source, AFPThe FTSE 100 closed 0.4% lower at 6,721, hurt by a 4% fall in shares in Lloyds Banking Group. Standard and Chartered fell almost 3.6%.
The real eye-catcher was Rolls-Royce, shares jumped 13%, after the chief executive announced a big round of cost cuts.
An early rally for the FTSE 250 dwindled and it closed little changed.
Just Eat shares soared 7.6%, to an all-time high after it upgraded its profit, external forecast for the year. The company, expects to make up to £108m.
Sports Direct shares jumped 11% after it announced a share buyback.
Image source, PAQatar Airways will raise its stake in British Airways owner IAG, adding to its holding after the shares plunged in the wake of the Brexit vote, Bloomberg reports, external.
The Gulf airline already holds 15% of IAG - making it the biggest shareholder - and is reported to be increasing that to 20%.
It would be a u-turn for Qatar's state-owned carrier, which only two weeks ago at Farnborough Airshow ruled out increasing its stake.
IAG shares have fallen more than 20% since the referendum result.
BBC business presenter Victoria Fritz tweets:
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Comedy writer Tim Duffy tweets:
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Image source, APThis interesting analysis comes from Neil Wilson, markets analyst, at ETX Capital:
"BT has carved out a very strong niche in sports, ending Sky’s dominance. EE is vital here as it allows BT to become a genuine quad-play provider and offer premium content via mobile.
"But sport doesn’t come cheap – the Champions League is attracting customers but if past experience is anything to go on, the potential for cost escalation is high.
"BT will have to keep a firm grip on costs – sports rights are very susceptible to inflation. BT’s £1bn for 48 Premier League games a season looks decent value against Sky’s £4.2bn splurge for 126 matches a year, but neither is cheap.
"BT has to be careful: it may be able to take on Sky – another traditional pay-TV provider - but the entire model is being upended by the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Over-the-top providers threaten both, especially if they choose to muscle in on the sports market."
Image source, Getty ImagesFord shares have tumbled more than 9%.
The carmaker reported, external a 9% fall in net income to $1.97bn, in the second quarter.
Sales in North American were flat compared to the same quarter in 2015 and it recorded a loss in Asia.
Ford also blamed the sluggish performance on weak auction values for its lease cars in the US.
The news from Europe was more encouraging, where sales rose 11% and profits almost tripled to $467m.
Lloyds has confirmed that the decision to make further cuts to jobs and branches was taken before the EU referendum on 23 June.
Image source, ReutersGoogle is going to try to make more money out of its mapping services, says senior research analyst, Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray.
He points out that Google's maps attract more than a billion monthly users, which puts it in an "elite camp" of five web services that attract that kind of traffic.
Mr Munster was speaking on Bloomberg TV.
Google's owner, Alphabet reports results after the close of trading on Wall Street on Thursday.
After a record breaking run over the last few weeks, US shares have started the session with losses.
A short while ago the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 was also down 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%.
Shares in Ford slumped more than 7% after reporting disappointing results.
Facebook shares are 2.3% higher, after it reported better than expected results late on Wednesday.
Investors are looking forward to results from Amazon and Google-owner, Alphabet later.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe New York Times reported, external a 14.1% decline in advertising from its print operations in the second quarter compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
Digital advertising revenue also fell, down 6.8%, as sales of tradition website display advertising fell.
Overall the company reported a net loss of $492m in the second quarter. Profits were hit by the costs of reorganising its international print operations and charges related to its employee pension plan.
Quote MessageWe expect that situation to improve in the second half of the year; in fact, we are already seeing a marked turnaround in July. We expect to deliver strong revenue growth from both digital advertising and our digital consumer business in Q3.
Mark Thompson, Chief Executive, New York Times
An EDF board member has resigned before a vote that is expected to approve the construction of the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in the UK.
Gerard Magnin, who is a specialist in the field of alternative energy, said the Hinkley project was "very risky".
Image source, Getty ImagesSoftware giant Oracle is targeting the fast-growing world of cloud computing.
It has agreed to buy NetSuite, external, a pioneer of the cloud computing revolution, in a deal valued at about $9.3bn.
Like rivals Microsoft, Oracle has focused on moving its business to the cloud-based model, essentially providing services remotely rather than selling installed software.
NetSuite created the first company dedicated to providing business applications over the internet.
Image source, Getty ImagesBP has agreed to renew sponsorship deals with the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and several other British cultural institutions.
The £7.5m deal also comes after BP reported a 44% fall in profit earlier this week.
It won't include the Tate, though. The art gallery group has been repeatedly targeted by environmental campaigners for its tie-up with the oil giant. As well as the "oil spill" protest above (it was actually molasses), there was a "mass exorcism" in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.
On the new five-year tie-up, BP’s UK head Peter Mather said, “Our industry is going through a period of rebalancing, but our commitment to the UK and to our partners is for the long-term.”
More than 200,000 people have taken advantage of new pension freedoms since they were introduced last year, new figures show.
The Treasury said 232,000 people have benefited from flexible access to their pension pots following the Government's reforms. In the second quarter of 2016 the number peaked at 159,000; however, this was partly down to the introduction of compulsory reporting in the industry in April.
The new freedoms give people aged 55 and over a wider range of choices over how they use their pension pot, rather than being required to buy a retirement income called an annuity.
The government is planning to extend the freedoms further from April 2017, giving millions more people the ability to sell income from their annuities, subject to agreement from their provider.
Image source, PALuxury British car maker Bristol Cars has its first new model in more than a decade. The Bristol Bullet is a handmade two-seater built to celebrate the founding of the company 70 years ago.
The "sublime" sports car will cost less than £250,000, have a top speed of 155mph and can accelerate from 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds courtesy of a V8 Hercules engine made by BMW.
A touch screen is embedded in the dashboard and there is even a button to provide direct access to the manufacturer's only showroom, in Kensington, west London. It's the first new model from Bristol since its two-seater Fighter in 2004.
Image source, ReutersFord says the US car market is starting to plateau after it went through an unprecedented growth streak. Cheap finance and low fuel costs had helped to power the buying frenzy.
In the last three months, Ford sold 815,000 vehicles in the US - a slight fall on a year ago.
Ford responded to the slowdown with increased incentive spending, which helped it match rivals' pricing but hurt profits.
Pretax profits from all its markets fell 9% to $3bn.